IBM sells mainframe for grid research

The University of Florida has bought a lower-end IBM z800 mainframe along with 32 Intel servers to investigate grid computing, a method of spreading calculations across groups of machines.

The z800 system is the 1000th of the "Raptor" systems sold since IBM released them in March 2002, Big Blue plans to announce Thursday.

The University of Florida is combining grid technology with virtualization technology that lets several operating systems run simultaneously on one computer. IBM's mainframes have had this virtualization feature for years; IBM's z/VM operating system, in particular, lets numerous instances of Linux coexist on the same mainframe.

The university has created software that lets actual grids be carved up into private ones for individual users or specific applications. The researchers are using the z800 with z/VM and Linux and the cluster of Intel servers running VMware's virtualization software for Linux. In addition to developing grid virtualization, the systems will be used for nanotechnology and computer science research.

The National Science Foundation funded the purchase of the z800, which was sold by Cornerstone Systems. The University of Florida also bought an Enterprise Storage Server "Shark" system with 3.36 terabytes of capacity.